HEARTS have blasted as "complete rubbish" the suggestion that manager Csaba Laszlo is threatening to quit after falling out with Vladimir Romanov.
A newspaper report yesterday claimed the majority shareholder snubbed Laszlo's pleas for a summer transfer budget of around £2 million. But a club spokesman said: "I spoke to the manager this morning just to check and I got it from his own mouth tha
t it's nonsense. He just laughed it off."
Laszlo has so far enjoyed a trouble-free relationship with Romanov, who has fallen out with previous managers since taking control of Hearts.
The club are still around £30m in debt and will lose defenders Robbie Neilson and Christos Karipidis this summer, having already sold captain Christophe Berra in January. Other key men – Bruno Aguiar, Andrew Driver, Laryea Kingston and Lee Wallace – could yet follow.
Laszlo spoke of the need for Hearts to spend in order to build on this season's success. "I wish the board to help us a little bit," he said. "I know and everybody knows we are in a very special situation at the moment – only sale, sale, sale. For me, personally, now must come the signal from the club to buy – investment is very important."
Laszlo, who took charge at Tynecastle last summer on a three-year contract, told his club's official website yesterday: "I have a contract at Hearts and that situation hasn't changed and I am building for the future here.
"Robbie and Kari have now left the club and good luck to them in their careers. But we still have good players here and we are working hard together to bring new players in who will add quality to our squad. That is our aim."
Another player he will be keen to retain is his own signing, David Obua. After a tricky start at Hearts, the Ugandan has become something of a favourite, not least because of his sunny personality. On the field, he has adapted to the Scottish game in recent months, a development he credits to thousands of assistants – the Hearts fans.
"It is not the type of football that I play," said Obua. "I am a footballer, I don't fight, I don't jump around, but I have had to adapt to the game. Being a target man is unnatural to me. It was the weakest part of my game, so I had to learn to battle. The fans wanted that, so I had to change and give them what they want. That is the mentality here, everyone wants to fight, to get stuck in – everyone's a Braveheart."
Obua has prospered and the talk of a move to England which surrounded him in January does not seem so fanciful now. "I need to learn more about this game first," he said. "I was more interested in the Spanish league when I was younger but the English league is now the biggest in the world."
